billh

Robert Johnson , Eric & Co giving it what for" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8gUpvllN5Q

Alan and Heather Snowden's other films, mostly on railways in 1960's , are excellent. eg: Woodhead Railway cab ride or the colliery railway at Seaham in 1963. I remember seeing one of S & K's boats being loaded at the Chance glass works in 1972. Two men shovelling a heap of broken glass into the boat while the horse grazed on a little patch of grass nearby.

Nope. wasn't me,I was at home watching Banana Splitz (q Mike Harding: "who knocked down the walls of Jericho?"😀) further explanation gets complicated.......

Ha! The information about RCHS and Marsden above was mostly a result of listening to one of Ian's lectures a few years ago. he showed similar pictures(maybe the same ones?). Earlier this year I was co-opted as consulting engineer to a scheme for Ian's internal transport at the Marple care centre, with a customer specification for it to be "economical". That sadly didn't work out, the proposed electric vehicle had been too long in storage .

One of these:

As can be seen from the above photographs, Marsden was getting past its sell by date. The following requires verification : British Waterways were looking for a replacement for Marsden. It so happened that the wooden maintenance boat "Mary" had undergone major rebuilding at Gorton Depot, around 1955(?) Within a short time of rebuilding, the Mary was subject to an arson attack while on the Stockport Branch at Reddish, the stern end and cabin was badly damaged and the boat sank. It was taken back to Gorton and the damaged parts were cut off, a crude transom stern fastened on and small cabin built, the boat length now being around 45ft and re-named "Saddleworth" This being the district of Yorkshire (pre 1974) at the west end of Standedge. It would have been necessary to take the boat to the tunnel by road- not that difficult for a shortened boat. For reasons unknown, this boat was taken from Gorton Depot and out to the mainline of the Ashton Canal near to Lock 7 where it eventually sank at it's mooring. Saddleworth was eventually broken up where it sank during the restoration of the canal in the early 1970s. Never made it to Standedge, later Tunnel inspections were carried out from a GRP(?) dinghy, until even that became difficult due to roof falls blocking the channel.

Marsden was sunk near the eastern end of the Tunnel until about 25 years ago. Later removed to the bank outside the cottages where it rotted away and as far as I know no longer in existence. Members of the Railway& Canal Historical Society had at least one trip through the tunnel on Marsden about 1960, Magpie Patrick will have more information about this. IIRC, the "jet" pump was petrol powered with plenty of carbon monoxide exhaust output combined with smoke and steam in the tunnel from the connected (then) steam railway tunnels.The tunnel light was a "Tilley" pressurized paraffin floodlamp contributing even more CO. Pictures exist of this exciting trip and remarkably, everybody aboard survived to tell the tale.

Memorable to me because I spotted the main body of an Epping stove in shallow water just before the aqueduct! Recovered it and rebuilt it, now in use in a boat. Amazing what some people throw away and what others find in the cut😀.

Wasn't the ICL OPD a sort of super Spectrum? I had one for a while but was unimpressed. Like most things I have acquired it was old when I got it and probably obsolete in computer terms That reminds me, I did find a Spectrum floating in the canal,wrapped in a black bag. Eventually got it working!

I've held on to our Dragon 32, along with a few games etc No idea if it still works but the kids got some use out of it back in the early 80s. Now then, I also have the internals of a Dragon 64, bought IIRC from an electronics store after Dragon closed down. That worked OK as well but I had to do something very bodgy for a keyboard! In the loft is BBC B and Microvitec Cub monitor, with dual Floppy disk drives. It has a screen reader plug in that turns the screen contents to audio for visually impaired users- leading edge tech in those days when a custom built machine (Kurstweil?) to do the same job was over £10k. More recently dabbled with a couple of Raspberry Pis , impressive for their capabilities but not really into programming. Seem to work great as media centres plugged into the telly. Just now I'm trying to get my head round a newish desktop running Linux- does the normal web browsing/ office/ email etc fine but back ups and disk management!!!!!

One of these: https://richardcarterltd.co.uk/our-products/66-hickory-shunt-pole/ for the last near half century. No weedhatch, but sometimes useful if there is one too. Technique for use is either get on the bank or lie over the side of the counter, aim the hook end at the propshaft just forward of the prop then twist the pole in a clockwise direction to engage the plastic bag/wire/rope /whatever and pull . You can even use it to couple old railway wagons together😀 Re-use,Re-cycle,Re-purpose!

A piece of almost anything stuck under the gate? Scale rust, sliver of wood etc etc. Possible push it back into the tank with air pressure or poke something in from the open end of the pipe whilst collecting the issuing diesel into a tundish? Need to open the valve fully first though. I've seen this before with steam valves not closing.

High pressure sodium discharge lamps? The ballast gear for these is complex and heavy- be careful when taking them down. Usual lamp designation is SON-T, 250 or 400watt . Excellent general lighting in factory or car parks etc. Colour rendering poor but a lot better than those low pressure sodium street lights that are still about. All obsolete now with super efficient LED lighting. In the picture there is a small depression in the end of the bulb, this is to fit a small spring metal bracket which supports the bulb in a horizontal type fitting , but not necessary here where it is vertical.

The factory over the road in your first picture was Ira Stephens belt works.Makers of transmission leather belting for the surrounding textile mills- all those 1000's of Lancashire looms powered from overhead line shafting. They were still in business at the time of the photo. The sheds in the second picture are the premises of Eli Whalley Co, famous for making "donkey stones" used all over the north for cleaning and colouring stone doorsteps. The site is now known as Donkeystone Wharf. In fact it was the original Ashton Canal wharf for the town, later replaced by Ashton New Wharf and warehouse at Portland Basin in 1834. The new building in the background is the Sea Cadet HQ, this built on the site of the MS&L Railway transhipment warehouse-serving the canal, the road (Wharf St) and the railway, interesting because the railway access was from the viaduct into the upper level of the warehouse, destroyed by fire c1960.

Some of the boats at Droylsden featured on here a while ago. Mostly belonged to James Hall and were extant until early '70s. The boat in front of Wharf Mill (2nd picture) is the Runcorn Header "Agnes", destroyed when the Asda tunnel was built. To the left side of the last picture, sunk in the weeds is another Runcorn boat, "Elizabeth"